


Voices In My Head

by afewmistakesago



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gold Family, Happy Ending, Light Angst, fifteen years post s6 finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 00:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11002359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afewmistakesago/pseuds/afewmistakesago
Summary: Fifteen years after the final battle, Rumple and Belle struggle to understand why Gideon made a poor choice involving magic at school.Featuring Soccer Mom!Belle, Papa!Rumple, and Gideon being his sweet self.





	Voices In My Head

He adjusted the price tag on the shelf, brushing off some dust as he turned back to the counter. It wasn’t that he expected anybody to come into the pawn shop right before close to purchase the antique telephone, but he preferred the shop to be spick and span. While Rumple could snap his fingers and have everything in order, there was something satisfying about keeping the place tidy himself.

Rumple heard the backdoor open, and could hear Belle talking to Gideon as they entered the building. He stepped into the backroom, wondering why they had come to the shop. Now that Gideon was fifteen, he was taller than Belle and had taken to helping her at the library after school when he didn’t have soccer practice. They would normally meet up at one or the other location to go home when the library and shop closed for the evening.

“Hey,” he said, kissing Belle on the cheek. She was ruffling through Gideon’s bookbag. Their son watched, back against the table, his cheeks reddened with either anger or embarrassment.

“Hi Rumple,” Belle said shortly, pulling a piece of paper out of Gideon’s backpack. “Your son decided to use magic at school today.”

Rumple raised an eyebrow at her while taking the paper from her. “So he’s my son when he uses magic?”

Belle’s hands went onto her hips, and he almost had to laugh at how authoritative his normally non-threatening wife looked. “He certainly didn’t inherit magic from me.”

He read over the paper. It was from one of Gideon’s teachers, saying he’d caught Gideon using magic to alter the scores in the gradebook. “Gideon,” Rumple said, turning to look at his son, who now stared at the floor instead of his parents. “Why would you do that?”

They’d been over how he should use magic several times, especially when it became hardest for him to control around the age of eight. Gideon didn’t seem very inclined to use his powers unless absolutely necessary… or to drive his mother crazy by switching the places of things in the kitchen. Instead of offering justification, Gideon shrugged and mumbled an “I don’t know”.

“You don’t know?” he asked. “Look me in the eyes, son.”

Gideon looked up at him, and in his eyes, he recognized fear and something like shame. “If you just tell your mother and I, we won’t be upset,” he said, and Belle nodded.

“We just want you to be honest so we can understand why you did that, Gideon,” Belle said. “Your teacher called and said if you’re caught using magic at school again, they’ll have to give you detention and explore options to prevent it from happening again.”

Rumple sighed. “Which means they’ll put one of those magic prevention bracelets on you, and you certainly don’t want that.”

“No,” Gideon said, shuffling his feet. “I won’t do it again, okay?”

“Gideon, please,” Belle said. “We want to know why you did it in the first place.”

Her pleas were met with silence from their son, who remained stoic. Their son was normally rather sensitive, and had a sweet go-with-the-flow demeanor. The attitude he was giving them now was unexpected, but he was a teenager and there were bound to be days like this. Rumple put his hand on Belle’s shoulder, trying to present a calm front. “Why don’t we go home, and we can talk about this when you’re ready, okay?”

“But we _ will _ talk about it,” Belle said. “And you can’t play on that computer thing until you talk to us.”

The drive home was uncomfortably quiet. Rumple was trying to get a read on Gideon’s feelings, but he would not intrude on his son’s thoughts. Belle was clearly upset, her arms crossed across her chest. He knew she was trying to understand why Gideon would do use his power for something bad. He’d certainly inherited that trait from Rumple, though Gideon had never exhibited it before. Rumple hadn’t used his power for nefarious purposes since the defeat of the Black Fairy, fifteen years prior.

A blessing and a curse for Belle, their son preferred books to computer games. Gideon spent the night in his room, reading a novel, while Belle stewed. “Sweetheart,” Rumple said, trying to get her to stop pacing the living room.

“Rumple,” she said, turning to look at him. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Sit down with me and drink some tea,” he said. 

Belle sat down next to him, sipping the drink. “You’re trying to placate me. I don’t know why you’re so calm about this.”

“He’s a fifteen year old boy. He’s going to make some mistakes.”

“With magic?  _ Dark  _ magic?” Belle said, sounding exasperated. 

Rumple shook his head. “I didn’t say they’d be normal mistakes. His parents aren’t exactly normal.”

Belle put her head in her hands. “I just don’t get it. He’s never gotten in trouble at school before. He’s always been honest with us, and he knows we’re fine with him using magic if he just tells us what he’s doing and he’s not switching my cabinets around-”

He rubbed her back. “I know, Belle. But we’ve raised him right so far. It’s his choice if he’s going to talk to us about it, or we’ll have to do something drastic like ban reading in the house.”

That got a chuckle out of her. “Only our son would take reading being prohibited as a major loss.”

“He gets it from his mother,” Rumple said. Belle looked up, giving him a tiny smile. 

“Has Gideon ever had trouble in that class before? What was it, history?” he asked. 

She pursed her lips, thinking. “He’s mentioned the teacher being hard, and gotten a few low grades for him, but nothing terrible.”

“Maybe he thinks he has to cheat to keep up our expectations,” Rumple said, musing out loud.

Belle took a sip of her tea, thinking it over. “I hope we haven’t raised him to be intimidated of us like that. I just want him to try to do his best.”

“I know, and you know I agree,” Rumple said. “We should give him some time to talk to us on his own before.”

Belle nodded, sighing. “You know, he has your eyes and uses the same expressions as you. I would have known he’d done something wrong the moment he walked into the library, even if his teacher hadn’t called.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I’ve gotten pretty good at reading you after all this time. But somehow my mothering is failing when it comes to teaching Gideon right and wrong.”

“Hey,” Rumple said, putting his arm around her. “This is not your fault. The grades have been adjusted back, he won’t do it again. We can talk about this in circles all night. Why don’t we just put on a movie or something? It is Friday night, after all.”

They put on one of Gideon’s favorites, trying to entice him to leave his room, but he didn’t bite. The next morning, he left their house at 7am, the soccer carpool taking him to the weekly game. At 8:30am, Belle and Rumple were out bright and early at the Storybrooke Community Fields. Belle laughed as they unfolded their chairs.  “What?” Rumple asked, sipping the coffee he’d brought from home as he settled in, finding Gideon in the crowd of young boys in matching uniforms.”

“I’m just thinking about how you used to come to these things in full suit, jacket, and tie. At least you’re just down to a dress shirt and pants, now.”

“And the tie,” he said, smirking. Belle handed him a blanket. These early games were chilly, but they attended every one of them. Belle had tried to push Gideon towards basketball, since they knew he would soon tower over them, but he stuck with soccer.

“Someday I’ll get you to lose the tie,” she said, sitting down next to him.

“The only place I will lose the tie is in our bedroom,” he said, voice low, and Belle giggled. 

“Not even for a high school soccer game?” she asked, “The most casual of events, really. Even for the Dark One.”

“This is the most casual this city will ever see me,” Rumple replied, “You’re lucky.”

“Mmhmm,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder. “There’s Gid.”

Their son stuck out from the rest of the boys, at least a few inches taller than the second tallest boy on the team. Gideon had made the varsity team as a freshman the year before, and Rumple honestly wasn’t sure if it was based on skill or size alone. The game started, and Belle began yelling at the ref and the boys on the team.

“Neal!” she yelled, standing out of her chair. “You kidding me with that pass?”

He saw David and Snow frown at them from across the field. “Sweetheart,” he whispered. “You are more into this game than the boys are.”

Belle shook her head, sitting back down. “Someone has to have team spirit - GIDEON! You got it, baby!”

They both stood, applauding their son’s goal, he glanced over at them after high fiving his teammates, smiling before the happiness dropped from his face and it was replaced with a blank expression. Returning to their seats, Belle sighed. “He still won’t talk to us. We have to talk about it.”

“He will, eventually. I know magic, and magic users don’t like to have their right to use magic restricted, the lingering threat of that should be enough.”

“I hope so,” she said, her focus returning to being the loudest mother on the sidelines.

“Belle?” he said as the game neared it’s end.

“Rumple?”

“Why don’t you let me have some time with him alone? It might be a magic thing… or just a guy thing.”

She looked like she wanted to protest, then nodded. When the game ended, they packed up their things. They congratulated Gideon on his goal and great plays, and he thanked them. When they got home, Belle peeled an orange and gave it to him, and then announced she was running to the grocery store. Rumple washed some dishes as Gideon sat at the kitchen table, eating the slices slowly. “ _ Come on, Gideon,” _ he thought. “ _ Take the opportunity.” _

Sure enough, he heard his son’s quiet voice through the running of the sink. “Papa?”

“Gideon,” he said, turning off the sink and watching Gideon patiently.

“How do you do it?”

“Do what?” he asked, wiping his hands with a towel and walking towards the table.

“Resist,” he whispered.

Rumple sat down, swallowing hard. He suddenly had an idea what had happened to his son. “Resist…” Rumple said, trying to get Gideon to clarify.

His son paled, staring at him with his wide, brown eyes. “The darkness.”

“The darkness,” Rumple repeated again, slowly nodding, suddenly understanding. “Have you been hearing things for a long time?”

Gideon shook his head, looking utterly lost. Rumple’s heart physically hurt, aching for what his son must have been silently enduring. “It’s just… little things. It tells me I could hurt the people who make fun of me, but I don’t. I don’t want to  _ hurt  _ anyone. I can resist knocking over a whole shelf of books at the library when Mum asks me to do something I don’t like. I can resist a lot, but… my grades in history were getting lower and lower, and the gradebook was right there and…”

“You couldn’t resist the temptation,” Rumple said, finishing his sentence.

Gideon continued. “It said nobody would be hurt, and it would only help me, and it was so easy to just change my grades to be better, and then you and Mum would be proud of me.”

“Gideon,” Rumple said, trying to express he wasn’t ashamed but all too well understood the draw of the darkness. It justified wrong decisions, and made evil seem easy. 

“I felt  _ good _ after I did it, Papa! And I know it’s wrong, that you would rather I get the grade I deserve, but in that moment… It just seemed like the right choice,” Gideon said, staring miserably at the remaining orange slices. “I’m sorry, Papa. I failed you.”

“Oh, son,” Rumple said, slipping into the chair next to him and letting Gideon throw his arms around his shoulders. He heard the garage door - Belle must be back. He felt Gideon begin to cry, and felt the immense weight Gideon must feel on his shoulders. His wife opened the door from the garage and looked between them and the car. 

_ “Stay or go?” _ she mouthed.

He motioned for her to come in, and she slowly closed the door. After setting a grocery bag on the kitchen counter, she sat in a chair across from her husband and son. “Gideon,” Rumple said gently, separating from him. Belle pushed a box of tissues towards them, and Gideon took one. “You haven’t failed me, or your mum, or anyone at all. It’s… natural, unfortunately, what’s been happening to you. I don’t know why I didn’t realize it could happen to you. Can you explain to mum what happened?”

Gideon managed to explain again, and Rumple watched Belle’s face fall as she realized her son struggled against the dark voices that often plagued her husband. “Oh, baby,” she said, reaching to hold her son’s face. “It must be hereditary, and I didn’t even think…”

“So I’m not crazy?” Gideon asked.

“No,” Rumple and Belle said at the same time.

“Your papa hears voices, too,” Belle said. “They tell him to do awful things. But he’s had over three hundred years to learn how to quiet them and control them.”

“And I didn’t always make the right choices,” Rumple said somberly. “You know that, Gideon.”

“But you’ve been good since I was born,” Gideon said, turning to face his father. 

“It’s a constant struggle,” Rumple said. “But my desire to be the husband your mother deserves, and the father you deserve is stronger than my desire to feel the dark magic course through me.”

Gideon shook his head. “But I gave in,” he said. “I must be weak.”

“No,” Belle said. “You didn’t tell us you were hearing things, you didn’t have anyone to talk to.”

“I want to be a good son, but what if I can’t be?” Gideon said.

Belle opened her mouth, shaking her head in disbelief. “You are the best thing that’s ever happened to us, Gideon,” Rumple said, trying to fill in where Belle was speechless. “As long as you try your hardest, we can help you, and you’ll be the best son to us.”

Gideon nodded, sniffling. Belle met Rumple’s eye contact. “After your father and I had you, he started seeing Dr. Hopper,” Belle said. “It might be good for you to have someone who isn’t your family to talk to.”

The boy looked at Belle. “I’ll do whatever it takes,” he said, “I don’t want to do anything like that ever again.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Rumple said. “We’re not upset with you, we just wish you’d told us sooner it was happening.”

“Why don’t you go splash your face with some cold water?” Belle said, and Gideon nodded, rubbing his eyes as he walked towards the bathroom.

The two sat in silence for a moment. Belle was shaking her head. “Another side effect of being the son of the Dark One,” Rumple said, suddenly feeling angry. “It’s my fault he’s suffering, it’s my fault-”

“Rumple,” Belle said, “Do not dare go down that path of thinking. There is nobody else I would rather be the father of my son. Is this unexpected? Yes, but we can work through it. With your counsel, and Archie, he’ll be okay.”

“And you,” Rumple said. 

Belle shrugged. “Some teenagers get addicted to drugs. Ours is trying to resist dark magic. It seems pretty typical for our family.”

He laughed, smiling as Gideon rejoined them. “So… what do we do next?” Gideon asked. “I’m not in trouble, right?”

“No, son,” he said, exchanging weak smiles with Belle and ruffling Gideon’s hair. “You’re not in trouble.”

“I think ice cream is next,” Belle said. “No good plan happens without ice cream. But please go change out of your sweaty soccer uniform.”

“I think your mum is right,” Rumple said, and Gideon smiled. He left to go change, and Belle and Rumple stood up. 

“You know,” Belle said, taking Rumple’s hand in hers. “We’re not half bad at this parenting thing.” 

She leaned up to kiss him, right as she heard Gideon’s feet coming down the stairs. When Belle pulled back, Rumple leaned down and kissed her. He smiled as he heard their son sigh in annoyance. If they couldn’t embarrass him at this stage of his life, what was the point? When they broke apart, Belle reached for Gideon’s hand, relishing the fact her son was not yet too embarrassed of her to be seen in public together, and the trio walked together to the local ice cream shop. One minor crisis was settled, and the Gold’s were ready for whatever came next.  


End file.
